The Sandwich Generation -
Two young daughters,my parents,
two dogs, and a job working with older adults...I am living a sandwich life between the young and old! Evidently that wasn't enough, so I have added 9 chickens too! Update! 15 chickens!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Sometimes this is hard!

There are two choices of places to pick up the girls after school.

When it is raining, we go the paved route. The other goes by some barns for the equestrian center and are knee deep in mud.

When I dropped the girls off yesterday, we agreed that I would pick them up on the paved route since rain was expected the rest of the day.

Grace came out promptly.

After waiting 20 minutes, I finally parked and got out to try to find Annabel.

Yes, of course she was waiting at the other side of the building in the muddy area.

My mind just started working, trying to sort out the appropriate way to handle this. It would be different if it was the first time I had to go find her, but it has become more the "regular" for her to come dragging out late.

So the first thought is to leave her there. Teach her a lesson. Of course, that won't work. For one thing, I would have to go back to get her. The other is that would just be mean!

So do I yell at her? Punish her?

None of those seemed the right thing to do. It's not a major issue, but it is pretty inconsiderate. So we drove along in silence for a while and I finally told her she could apologize, as it was the right thing to do.

Her answer, "sorry". That was heartfelt!

About halfway home, she said, "Mom, I'm sorry."

So this morning, I asked her where did she want me to pick them up. It was pouring rain as I dropped them off but the forecast was for the day to clear off. She chose the muddier route.

This afternoon, within 5 minutes of school being out, here came Annabel.

She was grinning from ear to ear that she had made it out and that I was cheering!

But then Grace didn't come out.

About the time I was about to go looking for her, she came out.

Annabel said, "Isn't she so cute? I could just squeeze her! But Mom, you can't tell her I said that."

I have no idea if she was serious, but it was so funny I had to laugh out loud!